HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The circus where St. Peter was martyred may have been part of the Villa of Agrippina. In 320 the Emperor Constantine founded the first Vatican Basilica over the apostle's burial place, and as the number of pilgrimages to Peter's tomb increased over the years, a settlement gradually grew up in the area. Many of the pilgrims came from northern Europe and stayed in the area which came to be known, after the northern usage, as the "burg", from which developed the name Borgo. Hadrian's mausoleum, now known as Castel Sant'Angelo, and the adjacent bridge date back even further, to 139. After the sack of St. Peter's by the Saracens, Leo IV erected a wall around the basilica and the adjoining settlement; once the popes had decided on the Vatican as their definitive seat a papal citadel developed, with an efficient military defense corps based in Castel Sant'Angelo. The area's period of greatest splendor coincided with the Jubilee of 1500. The portico of St. Peter's was built in the mid-17th century. The most radical changes came, however, with the opening up of Via della Conciliazione (1936), which brought with it a profound transformation of the neighborhood, accompanied by some highly debatable demolitions.
NOT TO BE MISSED
The area is dominated by Castel Sant'Angelo. Created as the Emperor Hadrian's tomb, it also provided a burial place for all the members of the imperial family, up to the time of Caracalla. It was entered from the "pons Aelius", and later from the Ponte Sant'Angelo. Under Aurelian the mausoleum was transformed into a fortress (271); it came to symbolize control over the city. A visit to the interior of the castle, which also houses the National Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo, provides interesting insights into the building's past: the various rooms, with their wealth of furnishings and works of art, illustrate the different stages of its transformations through the ages. The church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, which stands next to the 16th-century Palazzo del Commendatore, also deserves a visit. On Via della Conciliazione, Palazzo Torlonia is worthy of note: it is thought to originate from a design by Bramante, while Palazzo di Jacopo da Brescia is attributed to Raphael.
CURIOUS FACTC
St. Peter's used to be reached from two narrow lanes, Borgo Vecchio and Borgo Nuovo. These were separated by a row of buildings known as the "spine of the borghi". The "spine" ended in Piazza Rusticucci, from which the view of the Basilica, with Gian Lorenzo Bernini's colonnade, suddenly opened out. Even in the 15th century attempts were being made to devise a more imposing access route to St. Peter's, which would set off Michelangelo's dome to better advantage, but it was only after the Concordat between the Italian State and the Vatican (1929) that an agreement was reached. This led, in 1931, to the demolition of the "spine" and the opening up of Via della Conciliazione, as designed by Marcello Piacentini and Attilio Spaccarelli.
